Spurs are bottom, Liverpool are buying attackers, and we’re chilled

I’m back in Blighty following a week in the sun in Portugal, and yesterday I was making the journey back home whilst all the fun was happening for other teams in the Premier League.

It’s fair to say that so far, there are a few nice surprises that have popped up, whilst equally there are a few not-so-nice consistencies we’re having to deal with, like the fact that Man City appear to be doing alright. After we gave them a bit of a humbling in the Community Shield, they’ve popped up with two wins from two, although by the looks of the Bournemouth game at home, they weren’t exactly sparkling, were they? Against Palace I think they played a team that I think might be an outside bet to be one of the relegation candidates, so perhaps we don’t need to think too hard about it, but usually Friday night under the lights brings a big atmosphere at Selhurst Park; it doesn’t seem like that has happened this time around.

The fun stuff, however, has to be Liverpool and The Scum, with the latter finding themselves rooted to the bottom of the table after two games, and some of those Spurs fans who tried to argue that they had an outside chance of competing for the Premier League now find themselves wondering how they could have spent over £300million and still be in the mud. De Zerbi saying about mentality too is funny; it’s like he’s already warming his vocal cords for a Conte-style rant further down the line. I love it.

Equally, Liverpool about to sign Barcola, without realising that defending is an important part of football, is funny too. The more points those two teams drop, the better.

Today, with us still not playing until Monday night, we’ll probably see Chelsea beat Brighton today, but it will still be interesting to watch them play, I think, because despite their goals and attacking threat against Fulham, they still looked a little dodgy at the back in match week one. So whilst I am expecting them to be much better than they were last season, and I expect them to win today too, if we can get some signs of them being a bit sh*t defensively, then that’s definitely a positive we can take from the weekend.

From our perspective, what we’re interested in is whether Arsenal sign anyone by deadline day, with Andrea Berta apparently working on multiple options. We’ve also heard that Martinelli won’t be allowed to leave until Arsenal have found a replacement. If that replacement is Julian Alvarez, then fine, although I think like many of you, I’m a bit reluctant. There’s not a desire on his part of clamour all the way to The Arsenal; he hasn’t played wide left much in his career, plus I think we’re already stocked. So even if we lose Martinelli, we should still be giving Eze more time there. I think he can play it. I don’t think we need a touchline winger who will just hug the white lines; I think his version – which would be drifting inside to central spaces – would work well, especially in games where central spaces are compact and we have teams who want us to get the ball into wide positions and whip it in. Eze can get a shot off in small spaces, and I could see him drifting in as a good option for us, as well as Tzolis.

So I’m pretty chilled ahead of the transfer window closing on Tuesday evening. If we end up signing nobody and Martinelli leaves, I think no doubt we’re probably a little weaker, but maybe the clarity over roles in the team and the question mark over who gets those midfield minutes becomes a little clearer, because you can give Eze a shot wide left, then let the others fight it out for those midfield positions.

Tomorrow’s game will be interesting though, for sure, because we’ve got a Villa side that are at home and under the lights in a boisterous atmosphere, but equally it is a side quite unrecognisable from the ones we played last season. Let me read out the team lineup from this exact fixture last season, then put a note as to their current status:

1. Emi Martinez – currently finalising a deal to Chelsea (an annoyingly good deal for them, actually)
2. Ian Maatsen – still there and will probably play tomorrow
3. Pau Torres – same as Maatsen
4. Matty Cash – as above
5. Boubacar Kamara – as above
6. Ezri Konsa – an Arsenal boy now – and I’d probably play him tomorrow night
7. Amadou Onana – injured in the World Cup
8. John McGinn – captain – will play tomorrow
9. Tielemens – gone to United
10. Rogers – gone to Chelsea
11. Watkins – off to Saudi Arabia

In the return leg at the Emirates there was also Digne and Sancho playing, neither of whom are at the club anymore,

So basically, six of that starting XI definitely won’t be there tomorrow night. In their place, there will probably be Suzuki in goal instead of Bizot, Lindelöf, Ross Barkley, Bogarde (or maybe new signing Wan Bissaka), Buendia and Nicholas Jackson – who can, to be fair to him – blow a little hot and cold, but he will play. But it’ll be a debut and whilst I don’t expect Villa to be as bad as they were on the opening day against Brighton away, the home backing behind them and a couple of new signings on show, might spark a bit of a reaction. We have to be ready.

I’m going to save any more match previews for tomorrow, I think. Suffice to say, however, that their fans are not usually as buoyant as I’ve seen before, like in the Villa fans’ forums I had a look at last year. This year they’re all pretty universal in thinking we’ll win – with a smattering of the usual fans who will always predict a home win for their side, whichi is fair enough I guess. An interesting side note I’ve just read about – they have one stand – the North Stand – which will be empty for the whole of this season, as they renovate it to bring it up to a 50,000-seater capacity, from the 43,000 it was previously. That means they’ll have a 37,000 capacity this season, as that stand took up 5,000 seats. Will that impact the atmosphere? I think we have to hope so.

Back tomorrow with some pre match musings. Catch you all then.